By Abbie Digel Explorebigsky.com Editor
A big personality is coming to Big Sky in late February to play 11 shows in two weeks. Greg Aulden, a
resident of Hoboken, N.J., has been performing in Manhattan for more than 25 years, and is a regular at the Back Fence, a popular Bleeker Street haunt in Greenwich Village.
What is your connection to Big Sky?
Loren Bough [a long-time Big Sky local] used to come
see me at the Back Fence in Greenwich Village. When Loren married his wife, she and a groomsman fl ew me out to Big Sky to surprise him at their wedding rehearsal, at the ranch house where he proposed. I’ve
played at the Yellowstone Club once or twice, Spanish Peaks a couple of times, private parties and Big Sky Resort.
Tell me how you became a musician.
I’m self-taught on the guitar. I had my first gig four months after I started. A gathering at the rectory at my church—I knew fi ve songs and got paid 30 bucks. I was 16. I also sang in a band when I was younger. I learned guitar because I didn’t want to pay someone to play for me. I would watch the other guys, and I had this knack for remembering what they did.
[Then] I attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York and then started to pick up gigs.
What’s the vibe like at your shows?
Most performers build what we call the fourth wall,
which is the space between them and the audience.
I tend to break down the fourth wall. I love to engage people. I want people to join in with me … I would
rather have fi ve people in a room listening than a whole room just ignoring me. I will not be a speaker on
the wall.
People comment that I sound like more than one person on stage, so I came up with the slogan ‘little guy
[he’s 5’5], big sound, huge fun!’
Have you had much time in the studio?
I’m working on my second album now. People have started requesting my original songs at gigs! I’m working on a song called “Here Beneath the Big Montana Sky.” It’s a story about how the Boughs first asked me to see what life is like in Montana.
What’s it like coming to Big Sky from New York?
It’s two worlds. NYC is 24/7. In Big Sky people fall asleep when the sun goes down, wake up when the
sun comes up. Everybody has a dog, too. The fi rst time I saw the mountains and the sky [it was] just stunning.
Who are your influences?
When I was in college, I was playing at a place called
the Station in Wilkes-Barre, Penn. They had a cancellation and asked if I would like to open for Don
Maclean and sing “American Pie” with him.
I also used to play at a bar that’s no longer on Bleeker
Street, but I got to sing “I’m a Believer” with Davy Jones.
Another time, I was singing “Dreams” by Fleetwood
Mac, and this woman comes out of the audience
and starts singing it with me. I tell her she has
a lovely voice, and she gives me this half smile and
leaves the stage. Later people started asking, ‘Do
you have any idea who that was? That was Carol
King, you idiot!’ I went up to her later and said I felt
like I had put my foot in my mouth. She said not to
worry. My compliment was the most honest she had
gotten in a long time.
What songs do you like to cover?
I go in and out of love affairs with songs. It’s almost
like I’m playing them for the first time again after
awhile. There’s a song by Elton John and Bernie
Taupin called “Mona Lisa’s Mad Hatters.”
I also like singing Billy Joel, James Taylor, Neil
Young. I love to sing rock and roll, I’m a balladeer, I
love story-oriented songs—probably because I’m a
songwriter, too.
See Big Sky Resort’s event schedule here.
